Luke 2:1-14
The Impossible Christmas
Some/Many may not know it, but Christmas is all about the Child. I
did not say "the children" but "the Child." Who is this Child?"
Who is this Child whom angels came to announce?
Who is this Child whom shepherds went to see?
Who is this Child whom wise men traveled from a far to gift?
Whom Herod sought to kill? Whom Simeon and Anna were some of the
first to worship?
I cannot answer that question as it should be answered for I am not
intelligent enough to understand, spiritual enough to comprehend, or
articulate enough to put into an words a suitable answer; But for a
few moments, I will try.
Who is this Child?
I. This Child is the incarnate God.
A. "Incarnate" means "in flesh."
1. This Child is God in flesh.
2. This truth is the heart of the Christmas celebration.
a. It is what makes Christmas unique and worth
celebrating.
b. If this truth seems impossible to you, it is because
it is impossible.
B. But then ALL of the Christmas story is impossible.
1. I did not say "seems" impossible. I said it IS
impossible.
2. And I am not speaking of the impossibilities of a fat men
in a red suit squirming down chimneys or reindeer flying.
3. I am speaking about the impossibility of everything that is
part of the true story of Christmas being impossible.
4. Yet it all happened.
C. The Child that was born in a manger, that the shepherds and
wise men sought out, that Simeon and Anna worshipped is God
in the flesh.
1. This Child’s coming was hinted at in the day Adam and Eve
sinned.
Ge 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel.
a. God Himself was speaking to the serpent, but He was
looking beyond the serpent to the one who had
possessed the serpent, Satan.
b. The "enmity" that God declared He would erect was a
barrier of conflict, a wall of combat.
c. The forces of this battle were clearly laid out:
(1) The conflict was "between thee (Satan) and the
woman (Eve).
(2) Satan and his spiritual hosts will do battle with
Eve and her Seed.
d. Even the outcome of the battle is foretold.
(1) The heel of her Seed will bruise the head of
Satan.
(2) The bruise on the Seed’s heel will sting
uncomfortably but the bruise on Satan’s heel
will kill without remedy.
(3) Satan and his seed will be "defeeted."
2. This Child’s coming was spelled out in greater detail in
Isaiah’s day.
Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give
you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and
bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
a. Three things were prophesied here:
(1) The woman’s Seed would be a Man.
(2) The incarnation is hinted at by His name,
Emmanuel, which means God with us, walking among
us.
(3) Isaiah was told that when God gives the woman
this Seed, He would do so with a miraculous sign.
b. The mother would be a virgin.
(1) We are talking about impossibilities.
(2) Virgins do NOT get pregnant.
(3) That is impossible.
(4) Children are NOT made in Babyland and delivered
by storks.
(5) They are produced by the union of a man with a
woman, but this Child would not be produced that
way.
(6) The necessary biological material needed to
conceive this Child would be delivered to the
mother some other way.
(7) This mother would conceive and still not be
handled by any earthly man!
c. That is impossible, but it happened.
(1) This Child’s conception came about because the
mother was touched by the Holy Spirit—and not in
some carnal way, but supernaturally by an unseen
and unfelt Person.
Lu 1:35 …The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall
be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
(2) You might say, "But that is impossible!" to which
I would say, "Yes. It is."
(3) But that is what happened, some nine months
before the angels made the announcement we read
for our text.
II. This Child was the helpless Human.
A. Without doubt it seems impossible that this is true
considering what I just finished arguing for in my first
point.
1. Yet it is.
2. The truth is this Child is an impossibility.
a. His nature is an impossibility.
(1) Jesus was 100% God and 100% human.
(2) That is impossible.
(3) Even in mankind’s most popular science fiction,
no one ever imagined One who was 100% God and
100% man.
(4) They dreamed up gods who acted like men, and they
dreamed up men who had the power of gods, but
they never imagined One who 100% God and 100%
man.
(5) Why?
(a) Because that is impossible.
(b) No one would believe it.
(c) Yet, it is true of this Child.
b. His love is an impossibility.
(1) Jesus loves mankind, even those who brutally
murdered Him.
(2) That is impossible.
(3) It is common for one person to love another.
(a) It may not be a pure love, but such acts
happen every day.
(b) I don’t suppose there has ever been anyone
who never loved another.
(c) If there was, he would have been one sick
sociopath.
(4) It is even possible for a person to love someone
who had abused them.
(a) Sadly, many do.
(b) God seems to have made—at least some—with
a naivety and a strong loyalty, even to the
people who have been brutal to them.
(5) However, it is impossible for anyone to love the
one who brutally murdered them—cause they are
dead.
(6) Only One who has risen from the dead could love
with a love like that, but then resurrections
are also impossible.
c. And the list of impossibilities goes on.
B. But this Child was born 100% God yet a helpless Human.
1. Now angels watched over this Child, the helpless Human.
2. Even more fearful, God WATCHED over this Child, the
helpless Human.
3. But this Child, at His birth, had no more power or
ability than you did when you were born.
a. Being born a helpless human, Jesus had no divine
abilities until the Holy Spirit filled and
commissioned Him to serve at His baptism.
b. Some are a bit surprised and perhaps even disappointed
to learn that Jesus did no miracles until He turned
the water into juice from the vine at the marriage at
Cana.
c. How do I know that?
(1) Because the Bible tells me so.
(2) John 2:11
Joh 2:11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in
Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory;
and his disciples believed on him.
(3) In part because He had no power to do any
miracles until anointed and filled with the Holy
Ghost.
d. Someone wrote a false gospel (Infancy Gospel of
Thomas) that makes the claim that at one year of age,
Jesus gave life to some clay birds.
(1) It is a fake claim.
(2) How do I know?
(3) Because Jesus did His first miracle at a wedding
in Cana as a grown Man.
(4) Until filled with the Holy Ghost, this Child was
a helpless Human.
e. Some are surprised and disappointed (myself included)
that more is not revealed about Jesus’ childhood; but
that is likely because there was not much to reveal.
(1) Oh, don’t get me wrong.
(2) This Child is the incarnated God so there would
be some stories to tell, but none of miracles.
(a) There were no healings.
(b) The bath water did not divide.
(c) The birds did not deliver bread.
(d) Whatever diapers they had still got soiled.
C. This Child was the helpless Human.
III. This Child is the sinless Sacrifice.
A. The impossibilities continue.
1. God cannot put on flesh.
2. If God could put on flesh, He would never be a helpless
Human.
3. If God were human, He could never be sinless?
a. It is impossible.
b. Humans are born sinful.
c. Sinfulness is not a by-produce of our environment.
d. Neither is it a condition that is learned.
e. It is inherited.
f. How do I know? The Bible says so!
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin; and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
B. Yet this Child is sinless.
1. How is that possible?
a. Already asked and answered:
Lu 1:35 …The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee:
b. Because this Child had no earthly father.
c. Jesus did not just call God Father.
d. Jesus called Him "MY Father."
\\#Matt 7:21, 8:21, 10:32-33, 11:27,…\\
2. Jesus’ One and only Father was God!
3. Notice again how sin entered.
a. Sin entered by ONE MAN \\#Rom 5:12\\.
b. We remember that this Child was not promised
through the Adam’s seed but through the woman’s
seed.
4. Even though Eve sinned first, sin is not passed down
through the mothers but through the fathers.
a. As much as it grieves me it is true.
b. Whenever a child acts up, he did get it from his
daddy’s side of the family.
c. Sin is always passed down through the father’s
seed, but this Child had no seed from an earthly
father.
d. This Child is sinless.
C. This Child lived His entire earthly life without ever
committing a single sin.
Heb 7:26 For such an high priest became us, who
is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from
sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
1. Whereas we sin in thought, attitudes, and actions, this
Child never had a sinful thought, never displayed a
sinful attitude, and never did a sinful action.
a. No wonder His brothers hated Him.
b. How would you like to have to literally live with a
perfect Brother?
2. If Jesus had sinned in any way whatsoever, He could not
have been our sinless Sacrifice.
IV. This Child was our suffering Substitute.
A. Only the vilest of creatures would hurt the innocent, the
defenseless, and the pure; but this Child from before His
birth was marked for the cruelest of suffering and death.
B. In fact by earthly standards, this Child was bred for death
or as our Christian cantatas say it, "He was born to die."
1. A sense has arisen in some today that it is morally wrong
to bred animals for certain causes.
2. Some protests that animals are bred for experimentation,
for research, and for meat.
3. I don’t know if it makes any difference to the chickens
whether they have free range or not, but I know my sins
and your sins caused this Child to be our suffering
Substitute.
4. On a hill outside of the city of Jerusalem some 2,000
years ago, this Child was laid on the cross beam of a
cross, nailed to it, and the hoisted between heaven and
earth to die the cruelest, most barbaric death this world
as ever conceived, and He did not do it for any wrong
that He had done.
a. Someone protests, "Preacher, we are talking about
Christmas. Why are you bringing up Calvary?"
b. My answer is because just one won’t due.
5. The plan of God to redeem mankind is not just about the
one day called Christmas.
a. Christmas provided our Substitute.
(1) Christmas was needed.
(2) The plan of God depended upon it.
(3) Without it there would be no salvation, but just
one of divine day won’t due.
b. Calvary provided our payment.
(1) Calvary is the cross.
(2) That is the suffering Substitute making the
payment for all our sins, but even two divine
days won’t due.
(3) But even that did not complete the plan of God’s
salvation.
(a) Calvary provided redemption, but God wanted
more.
(b) God wanted restoration!
c. The empty crept provided the power for a new life.
(1) Christmas provided our Substitute.
(2) Calvary paid for our sins.
(3) But the proof of payment and the promise of power
came at the empty crypt.
6. One will not due. Two will not due. It took three divine
days and a suffering Substitute for the impossible gift of
salvation to be made possible.
V. This Child is the forgiving Savior.
This is where the rubber meets the road. For all that this Child is,
He means nothing to you unless you surrender to Him and ask Him to
forgive you.
Who is this Child? This Child whose birth we celebrate? This Child
whose life we venerate? This Child who we worship? This Child who
we believe in? This Child who we follow? This Child who we preach?
His name is Jesus, and He is the Savior of the world!
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